January Hodgepodge Trivia Quiz

Answer: Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated by a fellow Hindu.

Gandhi was assassinated by a radical Hindu named Nathuram Godse, who felt that Gandhi was too partial to Muslims. Godse's subsequent execution by hanging was independent India's first execution. Dien Bien Phu took place between March and May of 1954 and resulted in Vietnam's freedom from France. Israel was created on May 14 of 1948, and the new nation was immediately attacked by its Arab neighbors in the first Arab-Israeli War, from which the new state emerged victorious.

The Dalai Lama fled into India at the end of March in 1959, as China annexed Tibet.

Answer: the first two-way moving sidewalk

The moving sidewalk, or moving walkway, is called a travelator in British English. The first moving sidewalk had been shown in 1893 in Chicago's "World's Columbian Exposition." It had two levels, one for seated "passengers," and one for standing or walking.

In 1958, the first two-way moving sidewalk was installed at Love Field in Dallas, where a little less than two years later, on January 1, 1960, two-year-old Tina Marie Brandon became the first fatality on such a conveyance.

Answer: the Emmys

Retroactively called the First Primetime Emmy Awards following the advent of the Daytime Emmys in 1972, the first Emmys were awarded in Los Angeles, and only TV programs produced and aired in Southern California were eligible.

Answer: the telephone by Alexander Graham Bell

Born in Edinburgh in 1847, Bell moved with his family to Canada in 1870 and then to Boston in 1872, where he worked with the deaf. He received a patent for the telephone in 1876. He was also one of the founders of the National Geographic Society. Both McCormick, who established a factory for his reaper in 1847, and Glidden, who got a patent for his barbed wire in 1874, were born in the United States. Baird was a Scot, who first transmitted a television signal in 1925.

Answer: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Richard Wayne Penniman is the birth name of Little Richard, while Charles Hardin Holley is Buddy Holly. Albert James Freed, or Alan Freed, was a disc jockey whose nickname was Moondog. Ray Charles Robinson is Ray Charles. Other inductees in that first class included Chuck Berry, Elvis, James Brown, Fats Domino, Sam Cooke, the Everly Brothers, and Jerry Lee Lewis.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame is in Canton, Ohio, not far from Cleveland, while the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame is located in a suburb of Columbus, and the Polka Hall of Fame is located in Euclid, Ohio.

Answer: Galba

Galba took over after the assassination of Nero, last of the Julio-Claudians. Galba ruled only for seven months, murdered by the Praetorian Guard under the control of Otho, who only ruled for three months. Julius Caesar was never emperor, and was assassinated on the Ides of March (March 15) in 44 BC. Tiberius was Rome's second emperor, ruling for 22 years, from 14 AD to 37 AD, following the death of Augustus, who had adopted him. Commodus, the son of Marcus Aurelius, ruled for 15 years, from 177 to 192, when he was assassinated.

Answer: Ellis Island

Over 20 million immigrants to the United States were processed on Ellis Island from 1892 until it was closed in 1954. The Statue of Liberty, a gift from France to the United States, was dedicated on October 28, 1886. In 1965, Ellis Island was made part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument.

The Golden Gate Bridge, in San Francisco, was opened in 1937, while the Gateway Arch, part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in St. Louis, Missouri, was opened in 1967.

Answer: Wyoming

None of the three incorrect choices were still territories in 1869. Ross was born in Missouri in 1876, and lived past age 100, surviving until 1977. After her term as governor, she served as director of the United States Mint for 20 years from 1933 to 1953.

Editor's note.

Tayloe (not Taylor) is her correct middle name, so please don't send in corrections about this.

Answer: Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson was president from 1801 to 1809. Admittedly, his grandson's family was blessed with some very presidential names. Jefferson's daughter's full name was Martha Washington Jefferson and she married Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr., in 1790, at age 18.

She gave birth to James, her eighth of twelve children, while visiting her father. Thomas Jefferson's wife was Martha Wayles Skelton, his third cousin. Their daughter Martha was their oldest child.

Answer: James Marshall's gold discovery in California at Sutter's Mill

The migration was the California Gold Rush, and the football team is the NFL's San Francisco 49'ers. Despite his discovery, Marshall never profited from the gold rush, and neither did John Sutter, a Swiss immigrant on whose land the gold was discovered. Drake first arrived in Titusville in 1858. My descriptions of the other two "discoveries" are not totally accurate and are simply concoctions put together as incorrect responses.